The Solution to this low water pressure and flow problem all depends if the customer wants to go for it.... However in this video we use the Salamander AquaScan to make the job alot easier to find out whats going on. If you like the content on the channel then get subscribed and hit that "Like" Button..... Thanks Mark
HI Mark Have you considered a restriction between the incoming mains and the other taps. You've checked the flow and pressure up to the unvented cylinder but beyond that, there might be a restriction. A restriction would only affect the flow, the static pressure (when all taps are closed) would stay at 3 bar. You could test to see if you had a restriction somewhere in the line by plugging a hose into the downstairs outside tap. run it upstairs, plug your aquascan in and check the flow rate at the first floor. That would simulate the height differential.
Hey Mark, I work as engineer on the water board, we are governed to provide a minimum of 9ltrs/min at 10mhd. The water board need to prove the flow and pressure to the boundary as it could be a comms pipe issue from the main. We have also seen the same faults with the water softeners and PRVs, would be interesting to see what the flow and pressure would be around the property with the PRV pieced through as at 3bar I wouldn’t say they need one
Thankyou buddy….. Yep, thought it may be…👍🏼 We have zero pressure at the first floor (10 meters)… flow rate of 6/7 l/min And nothing on the second floor🤦🏻♂️
Good video, tricky one with pressure and flow rates, i wonder if they need a PRV at all if the incoming main is at 3bar..ish, PRV valves can get blocked on the inlet side and a Y strainer could/should be fitted to help. I'd be tempted to take it out and test again.
Hi mark. I watch all your videos when they come out always a good watch. I used to fit meters for our local water board and call outs to any low-pressure problems. I was just wondering if this problem has happened recently or something getting worse over time. We would always check the stop cock in fully open, check flow and pressure before the meter as they can block up and reduce or even stop the flow. There is also the possibility of a leak on the supply pipe which very rarely show on the surface. The PRV can show pressure but reduce flow. Looking forward to how you sort it
Thanks for the comment mate. I’m sure the customer has spoke to the water board (Severn Trent) and they said it’s all ok.. What would be the minimum you would let go into a property??
Oh mate,your 10 min rant reminded me of meeting up with my mate when I worked with him the morning.We used to meet at the local merchants at 7.30 then I would jump into his van after loading and off we would go.Then followed 10-20 mins of constant swearing and moaning about every driver , pedestrian, lorry bus and whatever else. I once counted 20-30 F's B's and C's in a minute , every other word ..... You managed yours without swearing once. Customers from hell , should be a book on them. Enjoyed the video , keep up the good work. Miss my old mate, and the crack with the lads retired now gets friggen boring.
Hahahah thanks mate, yep I think every tradesman can relate to a little rant in the van. People seem to enjoy it so I will keep tapping along with it👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks for that, Mark. Bit of a head-scratcher. Was it something that came on gradually or was it just crap one day out of nowhere? What's next door's water pressure like? I might be tempted to run a bit of temporary hose up the stairs from the best ground floor point, just to see the effect of the hydrostatic head on its own - but then again the ground floor shower wasn't much cop either. Has somebody chucked in another housing estate just up the road or something?
Hi Mark, that all appears to be a bit of a conundrum. The mains pump booster appears to be the way to go I think. It will be interesting to see the difference in pressure, if you get the go ahead for the job. Have a great week and as always, take care. 👍👍👍
Great demonstration of the aquascan, what is the size of the incoming main? Have you seen the DAB pumps with combined water storage, they are very reliable and extremely quiet, I fitted one at a farmhouse that was getting 1 bar pressure because the farm was stealing all the water, the taps upstairs would sometimes pull in air 😂
Should be getting upwards of 30 lpm on that straight off the main at 3 bar, if it used to be fine and has got worse over time I would say there is definitely a blockage somewhere, possibly the meter
Love the van chat hello I said to you a while back about when my son died a I allways watch your videos and you made me laugh you didn't turn the valve off we are all human mark we all make mistakes but ye keep the van chats
That's a very strange one .. I have come across something like this before . And the plumber had to install two large water storage tanks and a booster pump to pressure the tanks . And increased the copper pipes .. A lot of work involved 😯
Still loving your videos mark even though I don’t get chance to comment much on them these days as always busy but keep up the good work buddy as you say it’s real world plumbing. Be good if you could get an accumulator in the garage and a 28 fed from it to the main it would make all the difference
I had a very similar issue. I would take the mulibkock off and check that first as a piece of the non return valve had come away and was restricting pressure and flow. Once removed, all was working as it should.
Yep they are an expensive tool, depending on how much you use them and what type of work you do they will save a lot of time… all depends but on something like this they are very good
interesting fault Mark. Why as it only just started happening? I mean it must have been okay prior to developing the low flow problem. There has to be a logical reason why it has just started happening. It looks like quite a complex install, but when you whittle it down to the basics and start checking pressure along with flow rates as you have done, my money would be on one of the PRV's. I have seen them just stop working. It's a tough call to put a booster in and find out it's not that. Good luck mate. Oh and I love the van rant 👍👍
You had 18l minute at the water softener outlier and 15l on the same pipe not even .5 of a meter further down. After it went through the prv? I’d be taking that off.
House that size should have had an accumulator fitted from day one ? I had a faulty PRV, always change this first...but definitely fit an accumulator..nice gadget ! I have an old spring loaded one i did a demonstration to show impossible Jet fuel rates with....😂
1. Double check all valves are fully open. 3. Check if low pressure taps are forcing the high pressure back in on itself. 4. Check pressure balancing valve. 5. Check diverter valves. 6 Check water pressure reduction valve. 7. Flush system. Low pressure taps are for non-pressurised or open-vented systems. And are designed to reduce the pressure build-up in open-vented systems. Sometimes a mix mash of low pressure and high pressure fittings, can cause a drop in pressure elsewhere through the house.
As you can see in the video.. we have low pressure near on straight off the main buddy (0.3bar) along with low flow ….. Pressure drops off straight away from the filling look and open pipework to outside tap…
Proper head scratcher that one 😵💫 I would've disconnected the softener for a start. I had an issue before where the piston stack inside the softener was on it's last legs and the 4 bar pressure coming in was forcing it to discharge water to the waste and affecting pressure in the rest of the house. Another thing I've seen regularly with old softeners is the resin expands over time where there's lots of chlorine in the water and after a regeneration, the resin leaks into the plumbing system and blocks taps, filling valves etc etc. Probably nothing to do with the softener but hopefully my nightmares will help someone fix a head scratcher 😎
All depends on how it improves your certain type of work… Press is expensive, some think it a waste of money and others it saves money….. Each to there own buddy
@@MJTiffPlumbing Don't get me wrong - I can see they're a lot easier to use than a separate pressure gauge and flow cup, but £440 is crazy money for what you actually get. The cost of manufacture must be about 40 quid!
@MJTiffPlumbing is it I thought you was kidding us all on. Make sure you sell enough of your brand Deal to not loose the deal pal. Every problem surely needs 1 tiff
@@MJTiffPlumbing That’s a kick in the short and curlies…looking forward to future video on this as I can’t imagine that the customer can live with low pressure / flow. 😢
Just an advert for Salamander AquaScan and Booster in this video. If you need an expensive digital water pressure tester, you are not a plumber. JS. God knows what our plumbing forebearers did 50-60 years ago without these gadgets.
That's the trouble with quick release connectors - they release quick even when there's full pressure behind them! No chance to notice that first weep so you can just nip it up again.
@@MJTiffPlumbing Understood, but with a normal connector you'd see water leak as you started to undo it and immediately nip it up again before any damage was done - not an option with a quick release where it's full flow immediately and you're battling the pressure to get it back on.
The Solution to this low water pressure and flow problem all depends if the customer wants to go for it....
However in this video we use the Salamander AquaScan to make the job alot easier to find out whats going on.
If you like the content on the channel then get subscribed and hit that "Like" Button.....
Thanks
Mark
HI Mark
Have you considered a restriction between the incoming mains and the other taps. You've checked the flow and pressure up to the unvented cylinder but beyond that, there might be a restriction. A restriction would only affect the flow, the static pressure (when all taps are closed) would stay at 3 bar.
You could test to see if you had a restriction somewhere in the line by plugging a hose into the downstairs outside tap. run it upstairs, plug your aquascan in and check the flow rate at the first floor. That would simulate the height differential.
I tested the cold main off the filling loop and that’s what feeds the rest of the house and the points I tested from…. Before the cylinder
Like your lateral thinking...Process of elimination. Well worth a try.
Hey Mark, I work as engineer on the water board, we are governed to provide a minimum of 9ltrs/min at 10mhd. The water board need to prove the flow and pressure to the boundary as it could be a comms pipe issue from the main. We have also seen the same faults with the water softeners and PRVs, would be interesting to see what the flow and pressure would be around the property with the PRV pieced through as at 3bar I wouldn’t say they need one
Thanks for the reply mate….
What’s “10mhd”??….. I’m thinking 10m Head??
10 MHD is meters head which is approx 1bar, great content by the way
Thankyou buddy…..
Yep, thought it may be…👍🏼
We have zero pressure at the first floor (10 meters)… flow rate of 6/7 l/min
And nothing on the second floor🤦🏻♂️
Love how you show it as it is , with mistakes as well ( forgetting to turn the valve off 🤣) Great video cheers
Thanks mate….. it’s not all plain sailing🤣🤣
Easy mistake… that’s why it happened🤦🏻♂️
I love these fault finding videos. Be interesting to know how long it's been like that, surely that can't have only just occurred overnight
Good video, tricky one with pressure and flow rates, i wonder if they need a PRV at all if the incoming main is at 3bar..ish, PRV valves can get blocked on the inlet side and a Y strainer could/should be fitted to help. I'd be tempted to take it out and test again.
Yep very true that
Hi mark. I watch all your videos when they come out always a good watch. I used to fit meters for our local water board and call outs to any low-pressure problems. I was just wondering if this problem has happened recently or something getting worse over time. We would always check the stop cock in fully open, check flow and pressure before the meter as they can block up and reduce or even stop the flow. There is also the possibility of a leak on the supply pipe which very rarely show on the surface. The PRV can show pressure but reduce flow. Looking forward to how you sort it
Thanks for the comment mate.
I’m sure the customer has spoke to the water board (Severn Trent) and they said it’s all ok..
What would be the minimum you would let go into a property??
the minimum allowable pressure is 1 bar. and anything below 10 liters per minute is considered poor
Oh mate,your 10 min rant reminded me of meeting up with my mate when I worked with
him the morning.We used to meet at the local merchants at 7.30 then I would jump into his van after loading and off we would go.Then followed 10-20 mins of constant swearing and
moaning about every driver , pedestrian, lorry bus and whatever else. I once counted 20-30
F's B's and C's in a minute , every other word ..... You managed yours without swearing
once. Customers from hell , should be a book on them. Enjoyed the video , keep up the good work. Miss my old mate, and the crack with the lads retired now gets friggen boring.
Hahahah thanks mate, yep I think every tradesman can relate to a little rant in the van.
People seem to enjoy it so I will keep tapping along with it👍🏼👍🏼
Thanks for that, Mark. Bit of a head-scratcher. Was it something that came on gradually or was it just crap one day out of nowhere? What's next door's water pressure like? I might be tempted to run a bit of temporary hose up the stairs from the best ground floor point, just to see the effect of the hydrostatic head on its own - but then again the ground floor shower wasn't much cop either. Has somebody chucked in another housing estate just up the road or something?
1bar of working pressure should do 10meters of head….. we have nothing here 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Hi Mark, that all appears to be a bit of a conundrum. The mains pump booster appears to be the way to go I think. It will be interesting to see the difference in pressure, if you get the go ahead for the job. Have a great week and as always, take care. 👍👍👍
Thanks mate….. yer looking forward to getting it sorted
Great demonstration of the aquascan, what is the size of the incoming main? Have you seen the DAB pumps with combined water storage, they are very reliable and extremely quiet, I fitted one at a farmhouse that was getting 1 bar pressure because the farm was stealing all the water, the taps upstairs would sometimes pull in air 😂
Thanks mate….. it’s a 25mm poly main coming into the building
Should be getting upwards of 30 lpm on that straight off the main at 3 bar, if it used to be fine and has got worse over time I would say there is definitely a blockage somewhere, possibly the meter
Love the van chat hello I said to you a while back about when my son died a
I allways watch your videos and you made me laugh you didn't turn the valve off we are all human mark we all make mistakes but ye keep the van chats
🙏🏼🙏🏼…. Hey buddy…
Yep we all make mistakes…. This one I got very wet 🤣🤣
That's a very strange one ..
I have come across something like this before .
And the plumber had to install two large water storage tanks and a booster pump to pressure the tanks .
And increased the copper pipes ..
A lot of work involved 😯
That’s basically what I may have to do, fit the tank boost
Could there be a restriction in the pipework going to the bathrooms? Needle in a haystack trying to find it though.
It’s 18L/Min direct off the mains stop tap….
I think this could be faulty pressure reducing valves. I had similar problem as well
Not when it’s coming directly off the main…. Before the PRV….😬
@@MJTiffPlumbing didn’t catch that in a video, well then definitely not
Mark, That's a handy bit of gear to have, expensive yes, but certainly looks like it would point you in the right direction of the fault.
Yep very handy to have 👍🏼👍🏼
Really interesting video, be good to see after the tank booster is fitted. What is the cost to get the booster in out of interest?
Yep will be a full video on the tank boost when it goes in👍🏼👍🏼
@@MJTiffPlumbing that's another Sunday night sorted 👍🏻
enjoyable and interesting video Mark thanks
Thanks mate glad you enjoyed it
A tricky one Mark hope you get it fixed the aqua scan very useful bit of kit
Yep had to properly go over it all…. Certainly needs sorting out
Looks like a mains issue to me, but if Trent reckons it's fine could there be a problem with incoming stopcock?
They have been out to check and it’s ok for there “parameters” 🤦🏻♂️
Are the valves at the watermeter totally open and not broken?
Yep as open as they can be👍🏼
Still loving your videos mark even though I don’t get chance to comment much on them these days as always busy but keep up the good work buddy as you say it’s real world plumbing. Be good if you could get an accumulator in the garage and a 28 fed from it to the main it would make all the difference
Thanks mate….. wondered where you had got to 🤣👍🏼👍🏼
Thank you again for the video Mark.
Glad you enjoyed it mate
I had a very similar issue. I would take the mulibkock off and check that first as a piece of the non return valve had come away and was restricting pressure and flow. Once removed, all was working as it should.
Yep tricky to diagnose sometimes
Here... I just looked up the price of a Salamander aqua scan... They're just under £400 quid. WTF.
Yep they are an expensive tool, depending on how much you use them and what type of work you do they will save a lot of time… all depends but on something like this they are very good
I've seen taps left running upstairs on this sort off test the finding out the waste is blocked! Aghh!
Oh no….🤣🤣🤦🏻♂️
interesting fault Mark. Why as it only just started happening? I mean it must have been okay prior to developing the low flow problem. There has to be a logical reason why it has just started happening. It looks like quite a complex install, but when you whittle it down to the basics and start checking pressure along with flow rates as you have done, my money would be on one of the PRV's. I have seen them just stop working. It's a tough call to put a booster in and find out it's not that. Good luck mate. Oh and I love the van rant 👍👍
Thanks mate…. Yep you have to be 100% with this before letting the customer spend a lot of money
You had 18l minute at the water softener outlier and 15l on the same pipe not even .5 of a meter further down. After it went through the prv?
I’d be taking that off.
Will double check that👍🏼👍🏼
That’s about right because it was 15mm pipe and had been reducing to
We had a combi fitted and wasn’t happy with the shower flow, it turned out to be the prv.
At least you found it 👍🏼👍🏼👌🏼
House that size should have had an accumulator fitted from day one ? I had a faulty PRV, always change this first...but definitely fit an accumulator..nice gadget ! I have an old spring loaded one i did a demonstration to show impossible Jet fuel rates with....😂
Yep think that’s going to be the solution…👍🏼
@@MJTiffPlumbing£395 weeks wages for us guys in Northern Ireland 😅
1. Double check all valves are fully open. 3. Check if low pressure taps are forcing the high pressure back in on itself. 4. Check pressure balancing valve. 5. Check diverter valves. 6 Check water pressure reduction valve. 7. Flush system.
Low pressure taps are for non-pressurised or open-vented systems. And are designed to reduce the pressure build-up in open-vented systems. Sometimes a mix mash of low pressure and high pressure fittings, can cause a drop in pressure elsewhere through the house.
As you can see in the video.. we have low pressure near on straight off the main buddy (0.3bar) along with low flow …..
Pressure drops off straight away from the filling look and open pipework to outside tap…
Proper head scratcher that one 😵💫 I would've disconnected the softener for a start. I had an issue before where the piston stack inside the softener was on it's last legs and the 4 bar pressure coming in was forcing it to discharge water to the waste and affecting pressure in the rest of the house.
Another thing I've seen regularly with old softeners is the resin expands over time where there's lots of chlorine in the water and after a regeneration, the resin leaks into the plumbing system and blocks taps, filling valves etc etc. Probably nothing to do with the softener but hopefully my nightmares will help someone fix a head scratcher 😎
I did run the test bypassing the softener and it was the same…. Bloody things
@@MJTiffPlumbingah fuck. Not to worry, only another 25 years until retirement Marko, we'll struggle on until then 😄😄
Could it be that the pipework is not properly designed? A smaller pipe diameter feeding multiple outlets causes higher resistance and a low flow rate.
Possibly mate…… but taking all of that out isn’t an option..
However the Tank Boost could save the day
Its gonna be the illumaniti man, the only possible explanation now 😂
Hahahaha…. They get everywhere
I had to put a new main on mu house as the lead was very restrictive
Yep lead mains are so bad
Amazing thumbnail. Intro and editing. Right font and colours. Proper youtuber right there. Get in!!! Cool digital pressure gadget, not seen that one.
Thanks mate…. Appreciate that….
The AquaScan is a great bit of kit
£440 for one of those AquaScans. What a scam!
All depends on how it improves your certain type of work…
Press is expensive, some think it a waste of money and others it saves money…..
Each to there own buddy
@@MJTiffPlumbing Don't get me wrong - I can see they're a lot easier to use than a separate pressure gauge and flow cup, but £440 is crazy money for what you actually get. The cost of manufacture must be about 40 quid!
It’s not something for you then mate….. if you don’t see the benefit and what it does, time saved, accuracy etc etc….
It’s not the water meter is it
Apparently not according to the water board
Too busy trying to get a brand Deal you forgot to turn valve off. 😂 clean up in hallway number 4
Already got that deal mate…… keep up🤣
@MJTiffPlumbing you big show off lad. Just a lesson on how to use it now big lad
Could have cut that bit out pal, but it’s Real World Plumbing on this channel.
@MJTiffPlumbing is it I thought you was kidding us all on. Make sure you sell enough of your brand Deal to not loose the deal pal. Every problem surely needs 1 tiff
Don’t need to sell any…. It’s about the awareness of the product….👍🏼👍🏼
Sounds like it needs a need main putting in chief
Main is giving what it needs to from Seven Trent’s end…..
Out of interest, prior to you testing, did the customer complain to water company? And if so, what did the water company do or say?
Yes they did… and the water company said it’s fine… as it’s hits there “parameters”
@@MJTiffPlumbing That’s a kick in the short and curlies…looking forward to future video on this as I can’t imagine that the customer can live with low pressure / flow. 😢
Lies @@MJTiffPlumbing
Yep will be sorting it 👍🏼👍🏼
@matthewsmyth2833 what you on about??
Just an advert for Salamander AquaScan and Booster in this video. If you need an expensive digital water pressure tester, you are not a plumber. JS. God knows what our plumbing forebearers did 50-60 years ago without these gadgets.
Says the guy replying on an iPhone or computer…… it’s called evolution mate, it happens constantly…
@@MJTiffPlumbing I'm female actually, but thanks
You’re welcome 👍🏼
Never met a woman called Russ before. Always a first I guess.
@@MJTiffPlumbing Tell us all why you packed in your gas again?
That's the trouble with quick release connectors - they release quick even when there's full pressure behind them! No chance to notice that first weep so you can just nip it up again.
It was me disconnecting it without turning the water off first, wasn’t an issue with the connector
@@MJTiffPlumbing Understood, but with a normal connector you'd see water leak as you started to undo it and immediately nip it up again before any damage was done - not an option with a quick release where it's full flow immediately and you're battling the pressure to get it back on.
Got ya…👍🏼👍🏼